The Merrimack Conservation Partnership (MCP) announced the 2017 recipients of its third round of Land Conservation Grants, which help underwrite conservation projects that protect the ecologically important Merrimack Valley Watershed region of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In the latest grant round, the MCP awarded grants totaling $75,450 to seven projects that will conserve a total of approximately 647 acres of land. The total value of the land to be protected in the latest grant round is conservatively estimated at $1.1 million.

In 2010, the Merrimack was identified by the US Forest Service as the most threatened watershed in the nation in terms of projected loss of private forest land over the next 20 years. The two-state region of the Merrimack Watershed spans a total of 2.1 million acres and 3,275 square miles of which 54% is in NH and 46% in Massachusetts. The Merrimack River starts in Franklin, NH and flows through eight of NH’s largest cities, then continues into Massachusetts to its mouth at Newburyport.
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The Merrimack Conservation Partnership (MCP) today released a request for proposals for its third round of Land Conservation Grants, which fund transaction-related expenses on land conservation projects in the Merrimack Valley watershed of southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts. The grant program is privately funded and administered by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests on behalf of the Merrimack Conservation Partnership. Non-profit land trusts, municipalities, and state agencies that have land conservation as a primary function are all eligible to apply for an MCP land conservation grant.

The Merrimack watershed is home to more than 2.6 million people – 1.87 million in Massachusetts and 748,000 in New Hampshire. This represents 57% of the total NH population and 29% of the MA population. The 2010 U.S. Forest Service report, Forests on the Edge, identified the Merrimack River watershed as the most threatened in the nation in terms of projected loss of private forest land over the next twenty years.

Completed in 2014, the Merrimack Conservation Partnership is the product of two years of effort by a dedicated group of conservation and planning professionals representing 33 private organizations and public agencies in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Partnership is a collaborative, landscape-scale effort. Working together, the group has developed a science-driven, consensus land conservation plan that integrates the best-available natural resource data with expert judgment to prioritize land protection to protect water quality (especially drinking water supplies), preserve aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, conserve the region’s working farms and forests, and provide recreational open space. The Merrimack plan identifies 1.3 million acres of land, representing about 54% of the watershed’s total land area, as a priority for conservation. As of the completion of the plan, only 23% of these priority acres are permanently conserved.

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The Merrimack Conservation Partnership (MCP) announced the recipients of its first round of Land Conservation Grants for the fall of 2015, which help underwrite conservation projects that protect ecologically important Merrimack Valley Watershed region of New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  In the fall 2015 round, the MCP Partnership awarded grants totaling $112,500 to nine projects that will conserve a total of approximately 1,073 acres of land.  The total value of the land to be protected in the latest grant round is conservatively estimated at $3.5 million.

In 2010, the Merrimack was identified by the US Forest Service as the most threatened watershed in the nation in terms of private forest land lost over the next 20 years. The two-state region of the Merrimack Watershed spans a total of 2.1 million acres and 3,275 square miles of which 54% is in NH and 46% in Massachusetts. The Merrimack River starts in Franklin, NH and flows through eight of NH’s largest cities. The river continues into Massachusetts to its mouth in Newburyport.

Launched in 2012, the Merrimack Conservation Partnership is a collaborative effort of more than twenty private organizations and public agencies working on land conservation in the Merrimack Valley Watershed. The partners share a vision of conserving (on a strictly willing-seller/donor basis) the region’s most ecologically significant forests, and key connections between them for wildlife passage and human recreation.

For the first time, the Merrimack Conservation Partnership is launching its Land Conservation Grants program, which underwrites transaction costs – appraisals, surveys, title research, staff time, etc. — on conservation transactions that protect land identified in the Merrimack Valley Regional Conservation Plan. Below is a list of the grant recipients: Continue reading →